Why Spider-Man Received No Tony Nominations—And It’s Not the Reason You Think (I.e., It’s Bad)

Lo, the 2011 Tony Award nominees. The Book of Mormon, the impossible-to-get-tickets-to musical from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, earned 14 nominations—just one fewer than the 15-nomination record. The Scottsboro Boys, which we’ve heard is excellent, received 12, confirming our suspicions. And, as The Washington Post reports, “[a]mong individual actors who earned nominations were Al Pacino, who played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy, Edie Falco in The House of Blue Leaves, and Ellen Barkin in The Normal Heart.”

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (No, Wait, Turn On the Dark Because This Is a Mess) received no nominations—but only because it’s still in previews. Next year, it sweeps.

Watch the Tonys on June 12, broadcast live on CBS from the ceremony’s new location at Manhattan’s Beacon theater.